purse, bag

Dublin Core

Title

Object

Native Name

Nomenclature Category

3: PERSONAL ARTIFACTS

Nomenclature Classification Term

PERSONAL GEAR:

Culture

Seminole

Brief Description

Multicolored rectangular bag with drawstring closure at top.

Description

Multicolored rectangular bag with drawstring closure at top. Flat base constructed of palmetto bark fiber. Bottom two inches of sides are straight on the short sides and slightly bowed out on the long sides, rigid, and constructed of open coiled sweetgrass stitched together. The coils are sewn together with decorative stitching that creates continuous vertical lines about 1” apart up the sides of the bag with short, upright-pointing diagonal lines (about 3/8” long) that come off to the left of the vertical lines from the bottom to the top of the coils (about 1/4” in diameter). Each stitch catches a few fibers of the next coil above. The bottom four coils are stitched in green,t he next four in orange, and the top four in dark blue. The sweetgrass coils are laced to a palmetto fiber top with hide spaced about 1” apart. The palmetto bark fiber top is about 8 1/2” tall and is constructed of five pieces of various sizes laced together with hide with vertical seams. The hide stitches are diagonal (bottom left to top right) and are about 1” apart. Approximately 1” from the top of the bag two hide draw strings are threaded through two parallel sets of punched holes, made one on top of the other spaced about 1/4” apart, one draw string through each set of holes. The ends of the bottom drawstring angle about *” and are knotted together about 3 1/2” from the bottom and again about 1/2” from the end. The ends of the top draw string dangle about 11” and are knotted together at 6 3/4” from the top and again about 1/2” from the end. The bag is lined with mustard yellow cotton or cotton blend fabric, folded over the top of the palmetto bark fiber to make at op edge and machine stitched with the raw edge folded under, 1/4” from the top. The lining fabric is stitched together vertically in one location with the same lacing that joins two palmetto bark fiber sections. May have been intended for use as a purse. Small tear in palmetto bark fiber near join with sweetgrass coils with red thread. Appears to have been repaired at time of construction.

Use

created for sale to tourists, outsiders /
domestic use artifact; everyday artifact without special supernatural meaning /
personal adornment

Construction

Maker Culture

Condition

Source

Collector

Accession Number

1984-06-0011

Type

object

State

FL

Country

USA

Continent

FL

Comments Object Type

(deer)

Cataloging History

2009 RECAT: Jodine Perkins

Curatorial/Cataloger Comments

2009 RECAT: Object name changed form purse, basketry to more generic bag. No documentation in doc file to support specific purpose as a purse although it may have been. This item was just identified as a basket in original inventory supplied by donor.